A conversation about awakening to our true nature

Friend: Magdi you are such a nice guy. But I really do not get your message. At times, your message seems as truth but sometimes not.

Reply: Follow the path that speaks to you. Follow your heart. Follow what resonates. It has nothing to do with what I say.

Friend: Yes. It is interesting to realize there are so called others who are so clear.

Reply: The clarity, is the clarity of consciousness.

Photo by Sasa Gyoker

Friend: Yes. My main concern here is: Can anyone assume he has reached the top where only a few very privileged ones have access to it?

Reply: Any assumption of having reached the top, is a mind assumption. Being established in peace and happiness is void of such assumptions.
Yet there is a point in the contemplation and exploration where the coming and going of the mind stops. The roller coaster of happiness followed by unhappiness ceases.

Friend: I understand that. But in ponting to that it might seem as if you Magdi have reached that place and others have not yet reached it.

Reply: It is the comparative mind that perceives this way. The mind that sees a me versus the other.

Friend: Are you there, in that place while others are not there?

Reply: Everybody is just where they need to be.
Even perceiving a separate other has its place. After all, separation lead to suffering and suffering lead to inquiry and eventually to the realization of truth.
Everything is just as it needs to be.

Friend: But, when you talk, is there a separation? Is there someone who knows and others who do not know? I mean: What do you know that others do not know?

Reply: There are no others. What the mind refers to as others, is in fact consciousness appearing as that. All is consciousness.

Friend: Well said, but you, as a teacher or at least as someone who knows, for some people at least, they may wonder: ‘What the hell is he talking about?’

Reply: I speak my experience and it might resonate with some but not with everybody. Some follow up with questions. Some challenge what is said. Some may be critical. And some are silent. That is the nature of things.
When you have a genuine question, you will not be satisfied until it is answered. The answer must go deeper than a conceptual explanation and is satisfactory when it brings a satisfying and complete end to the question. Each follows their path.

Friend: The question here is: ‘What makes you feel as you have all the answers? What make you believe that you have the answers, that you understand? If your teacher says you are awakened, would you believe him?

Reply: At some point there are no more questions. The body mind dissolves into the divine. There is a knowingness that has no room for any doubt anymore. All doubts dissolve. You no longer waiver between happiness and unhappiness and your knowingness is completely established as causeless peace, happiness, wisdom and freedom. The contemplation continues but you are no longer in suffering.
You do not have a new belief or image about yourself as an awakened one, as an enlightened person. That is still ignorance.
If you have a teacher, you express your gratitude, love and respect as well as your friendship to your teacher. Your teacher is available to confirm your understanding. It is a silent confirmation.
In the old Zen tradition, a student, upon the realization of their true nature, would travel to various teachers to test their understanding. That was the old zen tradition. Such tradition also helps in the stabilization.

Friend: OK. Here, the two of us are chatting, right? Why make a big deal about it? We are just consciousness talking to consciousness. So what?

Reply: It has to go deeper until the question: ‘So what?’ is completely and satisfactorily answered and no longer arises.

Friend: What you just said resonates but does not answer the question. Recipes are many, but….

Reply: When we are really consciousness talking to consciousness there are no questions such as: so what? There is peace and celebration.
Maybe the big deal is waking up from the illusion of separation and suffering. That is a big deal.

Friend: Nice words, but… when I met you, I found a happy guy and yes there was something nice going on, but…. Is it what truth is?

Reply: The contemplation is about the happiness and freedom. Truth reveals itself as peace, happiness and freedom. The celebration of the qualities of the Self.
The celebration of life. The joy, the glory, the wonder!
The beauty, the love, the sense of play. The contemplation is ever deepening.

Friend: Nice words. And if they correspond with how it is now, it is wonderful. But if they are only concepts, so…

Reply: It is important to speak about ones experience and not just concepts. Then you can use concepts to refer to your experience and not to academic understanding. Concepts can point to the experience. The concept happiness points to an experience of happiness.

Friend: Yes and no. You as Magdi, you try to convey something that cannot be conveyed.

Reply: The only true conveyor is consciousness. It conveys itself and all its qualities of love, beauty freedom and happiness. Not Magdi. Magdi is simply a tool that facilitates the expression.
While, in ignorance, when you speak as the person, you do not speak from the universal. You refer to the limited self as a reality. The limited self is not real and is a mind impression.
Reality lies with consciousness.

Friend: I always ask my self why people who have some understanding talk with the words of their teachers and not their own?

Reply: Words are tools, pointers and do not belong to anybody. As long as the words are being spoken from one’s experience, then the words are harmonious. It is important that we speak our experience.
Consciousness speaks and the language, the wording changes slightly over time.

Friend: Do you see there are others who need your help? Is there someone who knows and can help others?

Reply: I share my experience and answer questions when they are posed. Consciousness sometimes appears as a friend. A truth lover feels comfortable and happy in meeting such a friend. There is no separate person that knows anything. The revelation is of the reality and universality of consciousness and not a personal revelation.
It is in following your love that you will find the happiness that your heart desires and not in perceiving others who are lacking. Such a dualistic perception is still ignorance.

Friend: What are we doing right now? Are we, me and you here, doing something?

Reply: The dream characters are not real. Only consciousness is. The mind perceives two where there is no separation.

Friend: In the end my question is: ‘Have you arrived to that place or whatever the name is given to it, from where is not return?

Reply: All rivers flow to the ocean.

Friend: OK. You go on with this discourse. It will click with the ones it has to click with.

Reply: It is all consciousness doing. I have no concern. God plays the game the way it pleases her.